Texas Hearing & Service Dogs Recruits Next Class of Dogs From Animal Shelters Across Texas

On a five day road trip up and down the highways of Texas, trainers from Texas Hearing and Service Dogs (THSD) visited nearly two dozen animal shelters to find and rescue their next class of Hearing and Service Dogs.

Director of Training Al Kordowski and Manager of Training, Becky McClintock, evaluated over 2,000 dogs in their search. They came home with eight new recruits adopted from six different animal shelters: Town Lake Animal Center, Austin’s municipal shelter, Williamson County Regional Animal Shelter in Round Rock, the Humane Society of Central Texas in Waco, New Braunfels Animal Services and San Antonio Animal Care Services.

The new dogs will learn to assist Texans living with deafness or mobility related disabilities. Hearing Dogs alert their deaf partners by touch and lead them to important sounds like the door knock, oven timer, baby’s cry and smoke alarm. Service Dogs help people in wheelchairs by picking up dropped objects, turning lights on and off, opening and closing doors, cabinets and refrigerators, nudging paralyzed limbs into position and performing other customized tasks.

“We are so excited to welcome these new dogs to our training center,” says THSD Founder and President Sheri Soltes. “One of the best parts of the job is giving dogs someone else threw away a second chance at a life of love and service.”

Texas Hearing and Service Dogs, a non profit founded in 1988, has adopted and trained nearly 600 abandoned dogs to become working partners for Texans living with disabilities. They invest one year and $18,000 in training eachdog. Donations allow them to provide the dogs free of charge.

To learn more about Texas Hearing and Service Dogs, visit <http://www.servicedogs.org/> www.servicedogs.org.